gabi,The world of Googling is great.
It has so many posibilities. A friend from a diferent state sent a picture of a bird in her back yard and asked if I knew the name of it. I didn't, but searched Google ... still didn't find the name. Then found an e- mail address on one of the web pages... sent him an e-mail request... and in an hour, half way around the world I got an answer...(Anhinga)
I love Googling, it connects people around the world...

The Weatherhuman was going to indulge his/her creativity in a pre-Thanksgiving haiku but forgot how many syllables go where.
Funny how Googling "haiku" gets erotic haiku in just a few clicks.source : www.dailynexus.com

(Reuters) :A devastating tsunami triggered by the biggest earthquake on record in Japan looked set to kill at least 1,000 people along the northeastern coast on Friday after a wall of water swept away everything in its path.

The government warned there could be a small radiation leak from a nuclear reactor whose cooling system was knocked out by the quake. About 3,000 residents in the area some 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo had been moved out of harm's way.

Underscoring grave concerns about the Fukushima plant, the U.S. air force delivered coolant to avert a rise in the temperature of its nuclear rods, but officials said a leak was still possible because pressure would have to be released.

The unfolding disaster in the wake of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and 10-meter (33-feet) high tsunami prompted offers of search and rescue help from 45 countries.

China said rescuers were ready to help with quake relief while President Barack Obama told Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan the United States would assist in any way.

"This is likely to be a humanitarian relief operation of epic proportions," Japan expert Sheila Smith of the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations wrote in a commentary.

Stunning TV footage showed a muddy torrent of water carrying cars and wrecked homes at high speed across farmland near the coastal city of Sendai, home to one million people and which lies 300 km (180 miles) northeast of Tokyo. Ships had been flung onto a harbor wharf, where they lay helplessly on their side.

Boats, cars and trucks were tossed around like toys in the water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaishi in northern Japan. The town of Kesennuma burned down. Kyodo news agency reported that contact had been lost with four trains in the coastal area.

Daylight, just an hour away, looked set to reveal further death and devastation, especially after two strong aftershocks that struck during the night in the northwest of Japan's main island. Japanese politicians pushed for an emergency budget to fund relief efforts after Kan asked them to "save the country," Kyodo news agency reported. Japan is already the most heavily indebted major economy in the world, meaning any funding efforts would be closely scrutinized by financial markets.

Domestic media said the death toll was expected to exceed 1,000, most of whom appeared to have drowned by churning waters after the mid-afternoon earthquake.

The extent of the destruction along a lengthy stretch of coastline suggested the death toll could rise significantly.

Even in a nation accustomed to earthquakes, the devastation was shocking.

quoteThe 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami東北地方太平洋沖地震, Tōhoku Chihō Taiheiyō-oki Jishin[literally "Tōhoku region Pacific Ocean offshore earthquake") was an 8.9 to 9.1-magnitude megathrust earthquake that created tsunami waves of up to 10 meters (33 ft). It was measured at 7[6] on the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale in the northern Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, with an initially reported magnitude of 7.9, while the JMA's tsunami warning listed the magnitude as 8.4,[7] later updated to 8.9.

Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) has confirmed at least 1000 dead and another 1000+ missing in six different prefectures.

Kesennuma, MiyagiMajor fires broke out in the city Kesennuma, Miyagi whose population is 73,403.

It seems from a camp of the self defence force a flotilla of 28 airplains (helicopters? 18 or 25 ?) were washed away from the tsunami.More than 300 people who worked there can not be reached ...The tsunami reached up to the second floor of the buildings. The warplanes stationed there can not be used any more.

The Military airfield of Matsushima is located at 136km from the epicenter.Other airports affected are: Sendai (167km), Kasuminome (163km), Matsushima (136km), Ojojibara (168km), Hanamaki (177km).

Sunday March 13We saw a helicopter fly over the facilities, many airplanes were washed out of the hangar, some standing on the runway with debris on them, some rammed into the barracks at odd angles.Soldiers were using brooms to clean the runway.

But Japan’s “massive public education program” could in the end have saved the most lives, said Rich Eisner, a retired tsunami preparedness expert who was attending a conference on the topic at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md., on Friday.

In one town, Ofunato, which was struck by a major tsunami in 1960, dozens of signs in Japanese and English mark escape routes, and emergency sirens are tested three times a day, Mr. Eisner said.

Initial reports from Ofunato on Friday suggested that hundreds of homes had been swept away; the death toll was not yet known. But Matthew Francis of URS Corporation and a member of the civil engineering society’s tsunami subcommittee, said that education may have been the critical factor.

(CNN) -- One person was reported dead and numerous boats and harbors suffered damage in the United States after the tsunami triggered by the massive earthquake off Japan swept across the Pacific Ocean at jet speed Friday.

quoteNo major tourist spot seemed to have suffered major damage with the possible exception of Matsushima which was hit by both the earthquake and tsunami, but details are not known to us at this moment. Parts of central Hakodate, including the morning market area, were flooded with some damage caused. Central Sendai, did not suffer widespread major damage.

quote LA TimesThe death toll from the 8.9-magnitude quake and associated tsunami reached 680 Saturday and may reach 1,000, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. According to official figures, 642 people are missing and 1,426 injured.Officials in Miyagi prefecture said 10,000 residents, more than half the population of the town of Minami-Sanriku, couldn't be located after the earthquake, NHK reported. They reported that an estimated 4,000 people were stranded at evacuation centers in the northern city of Sendai, about 193 miles north of Tokyo, without food, water or heat.More than 215,000 people were living in 1,350 temporary shelters in five prefectures, the national police agency said.

Officials try to calm residents wary of a possible radiation leak -- or worse -- at the Fukushima power plant, which lost its cooling system in Friday's massive earthquake.The outer walls of the Fukushima power plant's No. 1 reactor were blown off by a hydrogen explosion Saturday, leaving only a skeletal frame. Officials said four workers at the site received non-life-threatening injuries.The inner container holding the reactor's fuel rods is not believed to be damaged, said Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, and workers were cooling the facilities with seawater."Tokyo Electric Power Co. has confirmed that the inner reactor is undamaged," he added. "There was no massive release of radiation."source : www.latimes.com/news

福島第一原子力発電所 TEPCOexplosion at the power plant

quoteAnd a new threat emerged, as Japan's nuclear power safety agency said another reactor at the stricken plant had lost its cooling system and urgently needed water. The number of people exposed to radiation from the plant could reach 160, it said.An official at the agency said it has rated the incident at Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) nuclear plant a 4 according to the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES).source : news.yahoo.com

quoteOfficials ordered the evacuation of a 20-km (12-mile) radius zone around the plant and 10 km (6 miles) around another nuclear facility close by. Around 140,000 people had left the area, the IAEA said, while authorities prepared to distribute iodine to protect people from radioactive exposure."Crisis management is incoherent," blared a headline in the Asahi newspaper, charging that information disclosure and instructions to expand the evacuation area around the troubled plant were too slow.In Europe, environmentalists seized upon the accident to press demands for an end to nuclear power. Up to 60,000 protesters formed a 45-km (27-mile) human chain in Germany to denounce the government's policy of extending the life of nuclear plants.source : news.yahoo.com

The quake also created problems for the manufacturing sector, with Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. all announcing they would idle all or most domestic production facilities Monday due to difficulty in procuring assembly line components.

The amazing power of the quake was made clear by the US Geological Survey (USGS), which said the main island had moved eight feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis.

quoteA municipal official in the town of Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture said, ''More than 90 percent of the houses in three coastal communities have been washed away by tsunami. Looking from the fourth floor of the town hall, I see no houses standing," Kyodo reported.

The quake also created problems for the manufacturing sector, with Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. all announcing they would idle all or most domestic production facilities Monday due to difficulty in procuring assembly line components.

The amazing power of the quake was made clear by the US Geological Survey (USGS), which saidthe main island had moved eight feet (2.4 meters)and shifted the Earth on its axis.source : www.news.com.au/world

From the WKD Library

Footage on Japanese TV showed that the walls of the reactor's building had crumbled, leaving only a skeletal metal frame standing. Puffs of smoke were spewing out of the plant in Fukushima, 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Iwaki.